You only have one chance to make a first impression.
And research shows that we often make our first impression within 7 seconds of meeting
a person.
Leaning on studies surrounding the subconscious, some say we can make a first impression in
just a few nanoseconds.
But whatever time frame you believe to be the case one thing is clear…
In many situations that first impression may be the only impression we ever get to make.
This is particularly true when it comes to job interviews.
And if we don’t make a great one, we’ll be forever wondering why we didn’t get the
job.
Hey everyone Daniel here from Next Level Life and today we’re going to be talking about
5 tips to making a great first impression.
I thought it would be an interesting video to do since it builds a lot on my last video
about the 6 Pillars of Persuasion.
So without further ado, let’s get right into it, how can we make the most of our first
impressions?
The first tip is to prepare talking points.
You always want do your homework before meeting someone new.
You want to know who you’re meeting, what they care about, what they might need or want
from you and how your talking points could be brought up in conversation.
You don’t have to go overboard with this though, 2-3 points will do.
And these talking points should showcase your knowledge, strategic planning abilities, and
grasp of the business at least if you’re doing it for a job interview.
Ideally these points will crop up organically during the course of your discussion, but
if you get to the end of the conversation, and they haven’t emerged don’t be afraid
to say something like, ‘Before we leave, there are few things I want to make sure I
mention.’
The second tip is to be mindful of your body language.
Studies have proven that body language and other nonverbal cues can have as much as four
times more influence on first impressions than anything you actually say.
Genuine smiles are a winning ticket for creating a great first impression, as are firm handshakes
and purposeful eye contact so here are a few body language techniques to try out the next
time you make a first impression.
The first technique is known as the “Hello old friend” technique here’s how to use
it.
When meeting someone, imagine they are an old friend who you have for one reason or
another lost touch with.
But now here the two of you are, out of nowhere, reunited at last.
This joyful experience, even though it isn’t technically real, starts a pretty remarkable
chain reaction in your body and believe me the person you’re meeting will take notice.
The second technique is one that I talked about in my previous video entitled, “How
to Get Her to Like You”.
It’s called the “Flooding Smile” and it’s effectiveness is astounding, especially
nowadays when we don’t always trust that other people’s smiles are genuine.
So here’s how you can get the most out of your smile.
When meeting someone, whether for the first time or the thousandth, take a second to look
at their face, pause, and then let a big, warm and responsive smile fill your face.
This will wash over the person like a warm wave, because that split second pause where
you were looking at their face as if attempting to recognize who they were before smiling
let’s them know that the smile was genuinely for them, and only them.
And while those two techniques are all fine and good if you’re confident enough to pull
them off comfortably when meeting someone new, that isn’t always the case.
Self-doubt can completely undermine our ability to project confidence, enthusiasm, and passion
needed to make a great first impression.
Thankfully, there are physical exercises commonly referred to as “power poses” that can
help to summon a little self-confidence.
These power poses are open, expansive, and space-occupying.
Think of the Superman pose where he’s standing up straight with his chest out and his hands
on his hips, that’s what you’re going for here.
Research led by Dacher Keltner, of UC-Berkeley, shows that adopting these poses for as little
as two minutes prior to making your first impression can help you to shed the fears
and inhibitions that can prevent you from bringing your fullest, most authentic and
enthusiastic version of yourself to the meeting.
As a side note, for particularly high-stakes encounters, it may also be worthwhile to videotape
yourself ahead of time.
Observing yourself in this way will help you identify how you can improve your delivery
which may also give you some added confidence.
The third tip for making a great first impression is to build a rapport with the other person.
The easiest way to do this is to find something the two of you have in common.It doesn’t
have to be anything that profound.
It could be that you attended the same university, have kids the same age, or that you have read
the same book recently.
The goal is to create a connection on a human level.
Finding out what you have in common with the person might require a bit of detective work
on your part beforehand and that’s okay.
Just look for clues about things they are interested in by glancing at their twitter
or facebook pages.
The point is, don’t discount the value of small talk.
Another thing you could do to build rapport, which I went into in more detail in my video
on the 6 Pillars of Persuasion, is to mirror the other person’s body language or speaking
patterns.
Doing this will automatically make the person feel more comfortable with you, as long as
you don’t overdo it.
A fourth tip for making a great first impression is to try and get the other person to tell
you about themselves.
This will also help build rapport, but unfortunately, one of the most common mistakes people make
when trying to make a good impression, especially in situations like job interviews, is that
they think they have to impress the other person with their vast knowledge and list
of accomplishments.
Now you might be saying to yourself, ‘Well, hey, wait a minute.
Don’t I want to impress the job interviewer?’
Well… yes, but you want to impress them in the right ways.
If you become too focused on trying to impress them with your towering intellect and incredible
accomplishments, you run this risk of coming off a little desperate.
And that’s not the reason you want to be standing out from the crowd in any situation.
The fact of the matter is, is that your goal is not to wow and dazzle the other person,
it’s to create a conversation that’s memorable and engaging.
So try to draw out the other person and listen to what they have to say.
Maybe even lean in a little bit so that they feel like you’re really listening.
It’s no secret that most of us love talking about ourselves.
Not because we’re self-centered, but because it feels nice when someone else takes a genuine
interest in us.
So be sure to ask the person open-ended questions like: What are you most excited about right
now?
It’ll make them feel good, and they’ll be more likely to have a positive impression
of you afterwards.
It’ll also allow you to get a feel about what the other person is passionate about
giving you more potential topics for small talk later on.
The fifth tip for making a great first impression is to make sure that you follow up on the
meeting.
Because even if you crush it during the interview by using these tips your job isn’t quite
yet done.
You can ensure that your awesome first impression sticks, by writing a personalized note of
sincere appreciation to the person that interviewed you.
Ideally, the note should recap the conversation in a way that shows you’ve thought about
it or maybe even learned something new from it.
So those are five tips for making a great first impression.
Some other quick tips would be to be mindful of your appearance.
This one’s pretty obvious, but no less important because of it.
Like I said earlier first impressions can be made in a matter of seconds and once they
are made they’re surprisingly hard to change.
So dressing appropriately is obviously important, so is being on time.
Nothing shoots you down faster than being late for a meeting, and what’s worse is
that you literally have no chance to change their opinion of you since you’re not there.
So always give yourself more than enough time to get to where you’re going.
Arriving 10-15 minutes early is a good time frame to shoot for with a job interview.
Also don’t forget your manners.
Pleases and thank yous may not be used as often today as they were in the past, but
all’s that means is that you’ll stand out even more by using them.
And displaying good manners and being humble have never left a bad impression as far as
I can tell.
And this video is getting to be pretty long so I think that’ll do it for me today.
I hope that these tips were helpful, or at least interesting for you.
So if you enjoyed this video be sure to subscribe for more of them like this, I post every single
Friday.
So until next week, thanks for watching and have a great day.